Monsanto, Blackwater and GM crop saboteurs

Agribusiness giant Monsanto, which genetically modifies plants to exude or tolerate pesticide or to produce nonviable seed, hired the services of the mercenary firm Blackwater to spy on activists, Jeremy Scahill reports. A death-tech firm weds a hit squad.

This is no doubt in response to a decade of GM crop sabotage efforts around the globe. Since the publicly-announced introduction of GM crops in 1996, concerned citizens have vandalized such crops every single year somewhere on the planet. Several thousand GM plants have been partially or wholly destroyed. (See brief history below.)

Blackwater is most notorious for its Nisour Square Massacre in 2007. Seventeen innocent civilians died when Blackwater goons opened fire in a busy market square. The hit team was later acquitted in a U.S. court.

Scahill reports that through its web of companies, Blackwater (now Xe Services) spied on and/or infilitrated groups opposing Monsanto in 2008 thru early 2010. He writes:

“The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.

“After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to [then-president Erik] Prince and [former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique] Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses.

“Black wrote that Wilson ‘understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.’

“Black added that Total Intelligence ‘would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.’ Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater ‘could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally’….

“…Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating ‘there was no such discussion.’”

Monsanto said only publicly available information was monitored. Scahill writes of Monsanto’s security manager Kevin Wilson:

“He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto ‘with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.’”

“I can confirm that Monsanto likes to keep a close eye on blogs and websites. Back in 2005, I got my break as a food-politics writer after a Monsanto lawyer slapped my blog, with its all of 30 readers, with a cease-and-desist letter.”

Monsanto has also openly engaged with activists on blogs. During my tenure as Senior Editor at OpEdNews.com, site owner Rob Kall approved membership for Brad Mitchell, Monsanto’s public relations chief. One writer relayed that after her articles at OEN caught Monsanto’s attention, she noticed surveillance vehicles on her street.

That early 2009 decision at OEN spiked the ire of food writers. They objected to a forum for ordinary people granting equal access to a multi-billion dollar corporation which can publish in mainstream media, and hire professional psyops agents like Burson-Marstellar. (B-M represents genocidal regimes, claimed the Bhopal disaster wasn’t so bad, promotes secret vote counting software, and is generally the go-to spindoctor for the world’s worst enterprises.)

By a wide majority, OEN members condemned Kall’s approval of Monsanto membership, forcing him to rescind it. Two months later, in May 2009, he demoted and/or banned several “radicals,” including those of us who deride GM foods. In fact, my banishment prompted the inception of Food Freedom, a website that includes coverage of GM foods and Monsanto.

But, no matter how many bloggers it tries to silence, the biotech industry has lost in the court of public opinion. This is why it lobbies to ensure genetically modified foods are not labeled. Not even Burson-Marstellar has been able to overcome the “frankenfood” reputation.

GM Crop Sabotage in Defense of Biodiversity

But it isn’t just public opinion that concerns Monsanto. Monsanto didn’t hire assassins to sway public opinion. GM crop sabotage, which originated in Europe, has been an ongoing global effort since at least 1997.

In 1999, Andrew Hund compiled several reports of GM crop sabotage around the world, some of which are included in the timeline below.

Kathryn Brown reported in Scientific American that in 2000, “in Maine, midnight raiders hacked down more than 3,000 experimental poplar trees. And in San Diego, protesters smashed sorghum and sprayed paint over greenhouse walls.”

The timeline below is but a brief sampling of such actions. It shows a wide variety of crops on several continents. And, it shows unending interest in ridding the planet of this technology. (Too numerous to list, the cases of GM crop sabotage in the US are not included. See sources above.)

Not everyone has the luxury of destroying GM crops. In India, under a new biotech bill known as BRAI, people can be imprisoned and fined simply for “misleading” others about GMOs. Since the entire biotech industry is based on “misleading” information (e.g. one protein-one gene, or that GMOs are substantially equivalent to normal food), one has to wonder if Monsanto executives will get a pass, while only those who disparage the technology become the law’s target.

Elsewhere, dissent has been met with violence.

Last month in La Leonesa, Argentina, 100 thugs attacked local farmers who gathered to hear a scientific presentation on the toxicity of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. The Chaco provincial government had previously reported a tripling of childhood cancers and a quadrupling of birth defects in the area in the ten years since “the expansion of glyphosate and other agrochemical spraying in the province.”

Monsanto, by hiring a mercenary army and former CIA field agents, is deadly serious about protecting its deadly products. Yet, this contract further discredits the company. The public can now paint an even bleaker picture of the firm that brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, rBST, DDT, aspartame and, now, hitmen.

There is also a fabulous article/interview in Democracy Now with Right Livelihood winner, Canadian farmer and hero, Percy Schmeiser. It is very enlightening, as Mr. Schmeiser, who grows Canola on his farm in Saskechewan, and his years-long battle with Monsanto, the death threats, the harrassment, etc. This is the link I think:

A major threat to global sovereignty is being pursued in near silence, as the NSA-Snowden story dominates the headlines. The Transatlantic trade partnership between the E.U. and U.S. is edging closer to completion, as a new regulatory regime is being developed to control trade deals throughout the world. ……..
“While the idea of a Transatlantic Common Market can be seen as far back as 1948 in the global security integration of NATO, it first gained major momentum in April 2007 when President George W. Bush approved the Transatlantic Economic Council.”
Robinson continues stating: “This council is a permanent international body… (it) seeks to harmonize a large number of complex U.S. and EU regulations in preparation for a free trade zone by 2015.”……….
The Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership or (TTIP) “seeks to expand U.S.-EU trade flows by eliminating tariffs, reducing U.S.-EU differences in product standards and regulations and increasing investment across the Atlantic.With the European Union and the United States representing 47 percent of global GDP and 33 percent of world trade flows, the potential benefits and risks of this trade agreement are significant.”……….
In addition to being a trade deal, the TTIP, places heavy regulations on climate and food industries, proving this agreement has more to it than meets the eye. The language that was written for the TTIP could open doors for companies like Monsanto, allowing them to push their genetically engineered food production overseas as well as in the United States.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has been a very outspoken critic of the TTIP and the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, had this to say about the Transatlantic deal:
“US seed companies that for a decade have been struggling to break the deadlock over the authorization for the cultivation of their [GM] seeds now will be presented with the ultimate opportunity to change the entire process to suit their needs.”
The TTIP , is also imposing immovable policies on climate and environmental issues. Here is an excerpt from the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue report explaining how a ‘carbon tax’ scheme could be introduced with this new trade deal:
“The agreement must facilitate a transition to more sustainable consumption and production patterns, and not water down or impose barriers to measures for promoting them. To advance sustainability and avert catastrophic climate change, the agreement must ensure that trading partners can adopt tax policies, mandatory performance standards, carbon and pollution regulations, schemes for self-generation or “feed-in” electricity tariffs and renewable energy standards without being subject to challenge under the agreement.”
The picture is becoming clearer as we see the consolidation of sovereignty under both the Transatlantic and Trans-pacific trade deals. The excessive push by global industries to seduce the public into thinking this is in our best interest, quietly forcing us to comply with a new regulatory regime.
These deals always happen in secret, in dark halls, with a devil’s hand shake. ”http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/07/09/transatlantic-trade-deal-being-pushed-in-secret-amidst-the-nsa-scandal/http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/4329021-companies-can-lay-down-law

” Talks on the Atlantic portion of the secretive, dictatorial “free trade” policy being pushed by the Obama Administration, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), were cancelled yesterday, just after the cancellation of Obama’s Asian trip dealt a major blow to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.
Discussions with the EU over the TTIP were supposed to take place in Brussels tomorrow, after a first round of talks was successfully completed in Washington in July. But European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said yesterday that his U.S. counterpart Michael Froman called to say that Washington would not be able to send its delegation because of the government shutdown.
And over in Bali, Indonesia, U.S. officials battled to put a positive spin on the country’s trade relations with Asia in the wake of President Barack Obama’s no-show at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, the Singapore Straits Times reported.
Both the TTP and the TTIP remove control of the participating country’s economy, placing it in the governing international trade body, similar to how the Brussels-based European Union usurped sovereignty of the captive European nations. Both treaties are treated as secret, but it is known that provisions of the governing body will override individual nations’ laws on critical matters such as health care, trade flows, and government run or assisted industries. ” http://larouchepac.com/node/28447

NATO AND MERKEL ARE CONTROLLED BY DEUTSCHE BANK.
“Deutsche Bank writes German Finance Ministry’s Greek debt policy, ARD documentary reveals
The German government’s policy on debt restructuring for Greece is lifted directly from policy papers prepared by the Deutsche Bank, it has emerged.
The proposal floated at the beginning of June by the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble for a voluntary bond swap leading to a prolongation of the outstanding Greek sovereign bonds by seven years is based on a document by Deutsche Bank, investigative reporters from Germany’s ARD TV station have revealed.http://www.wdr.de/tv/monitor/sendungen/2011/0616/Griechenland.php5
The Deutsche Bank document called “Proposal for Greek liability management exercise – burden sharing without haircuts” insisted, not surprisingly, on a voluntary participation by banks.
The revelation that the Finance Ministry in Berlin just takes over the contents of policy papers of Deutsche Bank offers yet more proof that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble are puppets of the commercial banks.
Merkel and Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann attended this year’s Bilderberg conference in Switzerland and would have had ample opportunity to discuss ways and means to expropriate yet more money from the tax payers under one pretext or another. ”http://water pressure.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/jane-burgermeister-report-deutsche-bank-writes-german-finance-ministry%e2%80%99s-greek-debt-policy-ard-documentary-reveals/

NATO THAT IS CONTROLLED BY THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL HAS STRONG RELATIONS WITH DEUTSCHE BANK
CAIO KOCH-WESER, VICE CHAIRMAN OF DEUTSCHE BANK IS ALSO CO-CHAIRMAN OF THE BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS ADVISORY GROUP (BEAG) OF THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL.http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/about/advisory-groups
” On April 28 the Atlantic Council held its annual awards dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. where the U.S. State Department is also situated.
The honorees were headed by former President Bill Clinton, who was given the Distinguished International Leadership Award for his intervention in the Balkans in the 1990s, expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and launching the North American Free Trade Agreement. Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee of Deutsche Bank AG, was presented with the Distinguished Business Leadership Award. ”
( Atlantic Council: Securing the 21st Century for NATO http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/74126 )